Psycho/Emotional (Manomayakosha): The everyday mind with its thoughts and emotions.

Witness (Vijnanamayakosha): The witness consciousness, which illuminates all aspects of ourselves for integration and acceptance.

Bliss Body (Anandamayakosha): According to yoga, this is the whole and complete natural state of all humans.

You can find a description of the kosha model in the Taittirya Upanishad, a Vedanta text that predates the Yoga Sutras by about 1,000 years. (The source I’m referencing is titled The Upanishads, a translation by Eknath Easwaran. The descriptions can be found on pages 252-253.)

If I had to pick one component of the kosha model to shine a spotlight on, it would be Vijnanamayakosha, The Witness. Yes, the other four are important. For example, you can’t live life as a human being without your body or your breath. You can live without your mind or your bliss but I would hardly call that living! But The Witness is the lamp that illuminates all aspects of ourselves—personality and shadow, the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly—for understanding, acceptance, and integration. When we are able to witness our physical sensations, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors without judgment, we can cultivate and deepen our ability to recognize our patterns and consciously choose to make changes. The Witness is an integral, inseparable, indispensable part of our personal being, a true, deep part of each of us that points us toward optimal health and healing.

Waking the Witness in Daily Life

Waking and working with The Witness becomes especially important to anyone who has ever dealt with difficulty—and who hasn’t! This is important because no matter who we are, where we live, or what our current condition or situation is, our ability to witness what is happening in the moment enables us to respond appropriately to the ups and downs of our human experience in a wise and balanced manner. This is true whether it’s a situation with our physical body, our energy, or our mind and emotions.

Of course, that is easier said than done, which is why it requires practice. When I truly and seriously began to practice waking my Witness it was hit and miss, and understanding often came as a delayed reaction. For example, when my second marriage was going through some major bumps and rough patches, I was pretty miserable.

One incident, in particular, stands out. I was preparing to attend a yoga training. My husband was not happy about it and had done everything he could to persuade me not to go. I explained how important this trip was to me, keeping as calm and rational as I could to avoid escalating the drama. In spite of that, things between us were not good when I left.

Midway through the weeklong training, I woke up around three in the morning. Something visceral and weird was going on with my body. Waves of something were rolling from my hips to my head. Panicked, I thought I must be having some kind of seizure. Then something told me to just lie still and watch (The Witness?).

So I did. I watched waves roll up, one after another, until I finally recognized the waves as emotion. They were waves of anger and sadness coming from outwardly calm, no-drama, rational, and reasonable me. I was amazed. When it was over, I was puzzled but was able to go back to sleep.

The next day around lunchtime, I had an AHA! moment. I recognized the emotions as directly related to the day I left home to come to the training. I had done my typical no-drama response as a way of trying to keep the peace and had not recognized how I really felt until I witnessed my body talking to me during that early morning wake-up experience. But at 3:00 am, my mind was in no condition to translate the body talk. The Witness woke but it took me several more hours to understand what happened. It was a delayed reaction.

That was years ago. Not surprisingly, I am no longer married, but after years of practice, The Witness now works pretty much 24/7. I still display—most of the time—my outwardly calm, no-drama, rational and reasonable self, but I don’t stuff my emotions. I can experience and manage them in real time as they are occurring so my body doesn’t have to “talk” to me later through indigestion, headaches, and mysterious middle-of-the-night episodes.

The Witness is that aspect of ourselves that brings awareness to what we think, feel, believe, and do and also to the habits and patterns that inform why we think, feel, believe, and do what we do. The Witness is the agent of awareness, acceptance, integration, and change when and if we choose to make a change.

The mind uses language but the body speaks with sensation. If we know how to listen and interpret the messages we can do a better job of aging in a wise and balanced way. Waking and engaging The Witness is an important tool to create that conscious 360-degree self-awareness. Here are two of the practices I recommend for waking The Witness.

Yoga Practice # 1 to Wake The Witness

Practice 1: Waking The Witness: Awareness of and Sensations in the First Three Koshas

One of the best times of day to practice this is in the morning upon waking—hopefully naturally and not because the alarm went off! When you wake naturally, there is a delicious moment that occurs before your eyes open wide and your mind starts planning your day. Before you move or stretch, remain still and label everything you notice or sense at its most basic quality in one or two words. Here are some examples:

1. Body (Annamayakosha)

If/when you feel any body part in contact with the bed, label it in terms of the sensation you experience. For example, if you become aware of your head on the pillow, note what that contact feels like:

Soft

Hard

Scratchy

Smooth

Rough

If/when you feel sensation in your body, label it in terms of what it feels like:

Itchy

Painful

Stiff

Tingly

Open

2. Breath/Energy (Pranamayakosha)

Breath: If/when you become aware of your breathing, label it in terms of the sensation, what it feels like and where you feel it:

Chest rising or falling

Belly rising or falling

Inhaling

Exhaling

Deep or shallow

Energy: If/when you become aware of your energy level, label it in terms of what it feels like:

Tired

Balanced

Awake

Calm

Steady

Restless

3. Psycho-Emotional (Manomayakosha)

Thoughts: If/when you become aware of thoughts, label them in terms of their nature:

Helpful (or not helpful)

Judging

Planning

Remembering

Analyzing

Emotions: If/when you become aware of emotions, label them in terms of what they are:

Contentment

Sadness

Fear

Anxiety

Happiness

When you feel that the exercise is over, begin to stretch, move, and prepare for your day. If you have time, journal or draw any impressions or sensations that stood out for you.

Yoga Practice # 2: Finding Your Bliss

One way to access the Bliss Level (Anandamayakosha) is to ask yourself this question and think long and hard about the answer: What brings you the most joy in life? Remember, pleasure is fleeting but joy is long lasting.

BETH GIBBS MA, E-RYT 500, is a lifelong lover of movement and spent the first two and a half decades of her life dancing: tap, ballet, African and modern. She says she can dance to anything except heavy metal. She started her yoga practice in 1968, six months after her son was born and she’s been practicing ever since. She took her yoga teacher training with Joseph Le Page’s Integrative Yoga Therapy School in 1995 and currently teaches therapeutic yoga classes to children and adults with a specialty in classes for seniors in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Beth is a senior member of the IYT teaching faculty and directs the school’s Professional Yoga Therapist Internship Program. Her master’s degree from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA is in Yoga Therapy and Mind/Body Health. After 48 years of full-time work in management and program planning, in broadcasting and a variety of not-for-profit organizations, she is delighted to be “free-tired,” and pursuing her passions for yoga and writing. She is the author of "Ogi Bogi, The Elephant Yogi," a therapeutic yoga book for children with a companion manual for adults who work with children and has produced an introduction to yoga nidra CD titled, “Release, Relax and Let Go.” She still dances in her spare time For more information on her work see, www.proyogatherapeutics.com.

Editor's Picks

Featured Courses

While millions of Americans suffer from pain in the low back and pelvis, many back and hip issues are actually the result of sacroiliac instability (SI), i.e. an imbalance in the sacroiliac joint, which often goes undiagnosed or is improperly treated. Alarmingly, yoga practitioners appear to...Read more

Hip openers are among the most satisfying and powerful yoga poses. They hold a tremendous potential for transformation; they can help us release deep-seated tension and trauma of the past, which many of us hold locked in the hip area. When practiced correctly, hip openers are a great way to soothe...Read more

Yoga is more popular than ever, but as yoga has become a household word, has it also become a mile wide and an inch deep? Are we missing out on the essence of yoga, even as the practice has become a household word? What can we do to capture the deepest aspects of yoga and integrate these into our...Read more

Most people know the importance of core strengthening for health and long-term well-being, but the pelvic floor is an important group of core muscles, which tend to get ignored. “The torso is like a tote bag for your organs,” says Leslie Howard, a Bay area yoga teacher who conducts workshops...Read more

More Articles

Physical therapists and yoga teachers alike tell us that rolling to your side before sitting up from a supine position is healthier for your back. But why do so many yoga teachers suggest rolling onto our... Read more

Everyone knows it’s important to get some downtime. But if your primary relaxation strategy is Netflix and/or alcohol, you may need an upgrade. Here are four reasons why kicking back with a bottle to binge... Read more

I’ve played music most of my life. As a member of the Salt Lake Symphony, I practice most days. I practice so that my embouchure (the way I engage my facial muscles in order to get a sound out of my instrument... Read more

Typing, driving, cooking, gardening: almost everything we do encourages us to slide our shoulder blades up our backs and roll them forward. Over time, that can lead to stiff shoulders, sore upper backs, and... Read more

Neuroplasticity is the word for the brain’s capacity to rewire itself through experience and learning. Our brains are “plastic.” That is, it can easily be molded through external stimuli. The brain actively... Read more